Last month I had the opportunity to go to a forum where police and students discussed what might have gone wrong this past Halloween. For the third straight year, Halloween ended with a riot on State Street. I went because I was curious whether students and police could see that they both could have handled themselves better. That didn’t happen. Those who were pepper sprayed were convinced that they shouldn’t have been, and the police were sure, with few exceptions, which were layered with qualifiers, that they handled themselves correctly.

At the meeting, police showed video that they shot during Halloween. As the police admitted, the video they brought was not the best they had. The video was not taken from the best camera angles, there was no sound, and they didn’t have the time stamped on the video.

That said, it seemed to me the police handled themselves that night with dignity.

There were over 75,000 people in a very small area, and it was difficult to isolate the culprits. However, it was also clear that not everything the police did was correct. There were scenes where police pepper sprayed people that appeared to be leaving. There also appeared to be a couple of situations where those pepper sprayed were confused and accidentally pushed the police officer. This in return caused problems as the police pushed back. Finally, from listening to those who were there, it sounds like the police only left a few exits for people wanting to get off State Street. Again, I think it was a tough situation for the police, so we have to assume that they meant well and any problems were unintended.

While the forum was interesting, I almost didn’t go, because the focus wasn’t on where I thought it should be. No one was going to change his mind. Those who before the meeting thought that the police handled themselves correctly left the meeting thinking the police did the right thing. On the flip side, those who before the meeting thought the police abused their power left the meeting thinking they abused their power. Further, no one was suggesting that the police were the cause of the riot. Even if the police handled themselves the way those who complained wanted them to, the riots would have still happened. Accordingly, I would’ve liked to see the focus be on how to prevent the riots in the first place.

Looking back can be educational, but we pretty much know what went wrong; now we need to prevent it from happening again. Some officials would like to just cancel Halloween, but the idea that we can stop Halloween is silly. Halloween in Madison is a tradition and it’s going to happen whether we sanction it or not. What was obvious from looking at the videos was that 75,000 people created their own entertainment because there was nothing else to do. Last year there was an attempt to have a band. The idea was good, but it ended right when people were getting out of the bars, giving those who most needed it no entertainment. Instead of giving up on the band, it should play through the more critical hours of one to four a.m.

If having a concert on State Street in the middle of the night doesn’t work, it could always be moved to the Kohl Center or the Alliant Energy Center. The Kohl Center would be ideal as it would be close to campus, but if need be shuttles could be arranged to take students to the Alliant Energy Center.

A band is just one idea, but whatever the city does, they need to come up with something for people to do when the bars close. As president of the State-Langdon Neighborhood Association, I am committed to helping to find the right prescription for Halloween.

Jeff Erlanger invites persons interested in working on this issue to contact him at [email protected].